Hope In Strenght
by Lily Handle
Summary: Another writer in, this one for the episode SelfPossessed.


Hope in Strength

By: Lily Handle

Author's Note: Yet another write in, this one for Self-Possessed. Suggested by Wolviesfan, thanks a bunch for it. I had actually had a major issue with this one. A lot of the scenes in this episode took place at school, or at a rock concert, not places were having Hope appear is going to make a lot of sense. So I had to create scenes outside of the one big battle scene at the end for Hope to appear in. I love a challenge though, this was so much fun! Anyway, please read and review.

Dr. Hope Chandler was surrounded by files, medical files, expense files, and report files. Today was the day she had marked off for organization. Her file situation was getting out of hand, she'd been trying to catch up on it, but the alarm would go off and she'd be dragged away to another mission. Or there would be some sort of medical emergency. Or she'd get dragged away to answer the questions of some reporter on the phone. Today though, she had flatly refused to do anything other than fix the file situation, and tend to the school's medical needs. She had glided into breakfast, announced her plan, grabbed a muffin and glided out. She actually should have had Jean and Kitty do the organizing, it was one of their assigned tasks as her assistants, but they had school today, and a concert in the evening. She remembered what it was like to be a teenager excited about a concert, and the big rumor was Jean was going with Scott, so she'd given both Jean and Kitty the day off so they could primp and pamper if they wanted. The first thing Hope had done when she had gotten to the Infirmary was empty the files cabinets, and spread the files out on every available flat surface. It reminded her of when she first came to the Institute and had to organize everything. At the time she hadn't understood how anyone could let the files get into such a state of disorganization, now she knew better. Time for organizing things was in short supply around the Institute. Well, Hope though, she'd make time. She was about to start on the stack of finance files when the door opened and Hope was forced to leave it for now.

"Is there something I can do for you Logan?" Hope asked, surprised to see him standing in the doorway. Like always she got a little thrill when she saw him, but today he looked to be brooding, and the thrill was replaced with concern.

"How much time can you spare from that?" Logan pointed his chin towards her pile of paperwork.

"How much do you need?"

"Got a place I can sit?" Logan asked.

"Ah, you'll need a lot of my time then, well, uh, hmm," Hope muttered lifting a stack of files off a stool and sliding it towards Logan. "Do you mind if I work while you talk?"

"Go right a head," Logan said and sat down on the stool. Hope looked over at him, curiously, and he held out what looked to be a mangled squash racquet to her.

"What happened to it?" She asked, walking over and taking the racquet from him.

"Found it sticking out of the wall on the court after Scott and Rogue used it," Logan watched her while she looked the racquet over, "I think something's wrong with Rouge."

"Rogue? You think she did this? She hasn't been in here lately," Hope handed the racquet back to him and started to shift through the medical records she had on the counter, "At least I don't think so, this is what I get for ignoring the filing. Do you have an idea of what might be wrong with her?"

"No," Logan frowned, "Just a hunch that something's wrong."

"I'll go through my records, but Rogue doesn't stop in here that often," Hope also frowned, down at the mess of paperwork and records, "It may take a while."

"Yeah, well, I could be wrong," Logan said, standing, "Try and hurry tough." Hope stared at the door after it closed, she understood that Logan cared for the students, he didn't exactly hide it, but why did he come to her with his concerns? He's probably going to see Charles next, Hope reasoned, thumbing through the records. She had most of the records on computer, she could type in Rogue's name and the computer would bring up all her records but the best way to look for a trend would be for her to go through every file by hand and read them all. There would be little side notes in the margins with her hunches and thoughts about what might be wrong and those where what she wanted to take a look at, as well as the computer records. She leaned over the paperwork to start the computer on a search through all of Rogue's medical records, All right, Hope thought, time to play medical detective.

It took Hope most of the day to find all the files and notes she had on Rogue. By the evening she had read through them all. She had come up with a disturbing pattern, one that Hope should have noticed before. Rogue kept coming in complaining of headaches. Recently they had become more frequent, from what Hope had managed to pry out of the girl, also more intense. At the time Hope had believed they were stress related, Hope had the same problem, so she had just given Rogue some pills and told her take it easy. In retrospection Hope should have paid more attention to the trend. Now, though she could make up for it and inform Logan and Charles. She checked her watch, at this hour Logan could be anywhere in the Institute, but Hope had a hunch on where he might be. She went to the garage, some times after dinner when the students were working on homework and not training, Logan could be found there, working on his motorcycle. If he wasn't there Hope would check the danger room or the control room. She opened the door to the garage and poked her head inside. Logan was kneeling by his motorcycle, tools of varying shapes and sizes spread out around him.

"Excuse me, Logan," Hope said, stepping into the garage, "I'm sorry it took so long, but I finished looking into Rogue's medical records for you."

"Good," Logan stood up from the bike, picked up a rag and started to clean his hands, "Find anything?"

"Yes, actually. I'm pretty sure there's something seriously wrong," Hope held out a single file to Logan, "I condensed everything. Rogue may have chronic migraines."

"Migraines aren't serious, Doc," Logan said while reading the file.

"Actually they can be. Migraines, especially chronic ones, can point to more serious neurological problems," Hope explained, "I'd suggest we get her to see a specialist."

"You know a specialist that will keep this quiet?" Logan asked handing the file back.

"I can look around," Hope tapped the file against her hand, "Though the medical field doesn't have a mutant neurological specialist that I know of."

"You know anything that could cause this?" Logan asked, sitting on his motorcycle, arms crossed over his chest.

"The only thing that comes to mind is a brain tumor." Hope held a hand up before Logan could interrupt, "But that's in a normal person. With Rogue's powers of absorption she could have any sort of neurological disorder. I have a specialty degree in traumatic surgery, nothing neurological, so I'm shooting in the dark here."

"You think her powers could be doing this?"

"Well, yes, it only seems logical," Hope said talking more to herself then Logan while she theorized, "She absorbs mutant powers, the continual adaptation and changes that her body has to make to deal with this could be creating the headaches. Or she could have an everyday, run of the mill neurological disorder."

"I gotta talk to her," Logan murmured more to himself than Hope.

"Well..." The alarm went off, interrupting Hope, "What's going on?"

"Let's find out," Logan said. Hope followed him out of the garage, to the front foyer of the Institute, where Scott, Kitty, Kurt and Jean were standing along with Jamie, Hank, Ororo and Charles.

"What's going on?" Logan asked.

"Sabretooth and Juggernaut attacked the concert along with Mystique," Scott said, "Juggernaut ran off."

"We'll start a search, Juggernaut couldn't have gone far," Charles ordered, "Everyone suit up, we'll split up and search the city. Scott, you and the students take the van with Logan."

"I'll take my motorcycle," Logan growled.

"All right, Hank, Ororo and Dr. Chandler, you'll come with me in the jet. When you find Juggernaut, call in for backup."

Hope sat behind Ororo and Hank while they piloted the X-jet, next to Charles who was using his powers to try and find Mystique or Sabretooth or Juggernaut. Hope sat, anxiously tapping a foot. She had seen Sabretooth in action before, her anxiety was for the students. Sabretooth was vicious in his fighting style, Hope sometimes wondered if he even knew he was fighting children. And Juggernaut, well he obviously knew he fought children, but didn't care. She didn't like the idea that Mystique was using two mutant, who were almost uncontrollable to terrorize Bayville. What was Mystique up to anyway? Hope wondered, listening with one ear to Ororo and Hank talk about the search. She had gone after a teenage rock concert, what could be at the teenage rock concert?

"Corner of Brent and Tyler Boulevard," Scott's voice over the radio cut through the semi-silence.

"Alright Scott," Hank said, "We're on our way."

"It's Rogue," Charles said suddenly.

"What?" Ororo looked over her shoulder at Charles and Hope gapped at him.

"It's Rogue they're following. She's lost control, we need to hurry." Hope almost couldn't wrap her mind around it, but she thought about the racquet Logan had showed her, and her own theories.

"She must be fighting against the personalities she absorbed," Hope said.

"Yes," Charles frowned, "She's been trying to control them, I believe they are fighting back."

"What can we do?" Ororo asked.

"We have to get Rogue to fight against them, she needs to take control," Charles answered.

"We're closing in," Hank said and Hope could see a shape on the horizon, it was Rogue. She turned towards the jet, waved her hand and sent the jet towards the ground.

"Hold on!" Hank yelled, and Hope clung to the armrest of her seat. The jet hit the ground on its side, the momentum of the crash sliding it into cars as it skidded down the street. The jet didn't stop until it slammed into a street sign.

"Is everyone alright?" Hope asked, carefully unbuckling herself from the seat and standing.

"Yes, Dr. Chandler," Charles said while Hank and Ororo helped to right his wheel chair. "We need to hurry." Hope picked up the large orange bag of medical supplies, one similar to the kind paramedics carried. She stepped outside after Hank, looking over the wrecked street for the injured.

"Charles?" Hope heard Ororo ask, and glanced over to see him rubbing his head.

"Go, Storm," Charles said, while Hope moved closer.

"Do you need something?" Hope asked, kneeling next to his chair.

"No, I'm fine." Charles shook his head, "Go join the students, they'll need you." Hope looked over to the fight, Rogue was using Scott's power, firing beams of red light towards anyone.

"If you need anything," Hope said before running off, the medical bag bouncing against her back. She stayed low, crouching behind the few remaining cars, trying to keep out of Rogue's sight.

"Jean!" Scott yelled, "Pull 'er down!" Hope watched over the hood of a car as Jean placed her hands to her head and started to drag Rogue downward. Rogue brought herself to a stop halfway to the street, fighting Jean. Jean suddenly cried out, she flew backwards and landed hard on her back. Hope was running towards her seconds later, watching Rogue with one eye, Jean with the other. Hope dropped to her knees, dropping the bag next to her, her hands running over Jean's neck. Her pulse was strong under Hope's fingers, and Jean's neck seemed to be unharmed.

"Jean," Hope said, turning so flying debris hit her instead of the girl, "Jean can you hear me?" Hope grabbed a penlight from the pocket on her doctor's coat, she checked Jean's eyes, one at a time, shinning the light to see how the pupils reacted. Jean groaned, and pushed Hope's hand away.

"I'm okay," She said, pushing herself up to sit. Hope helped her, keeping one hand to her back, while scanning Jean's face for any sign of pain.

"Nothing hurts?" She asked, crouching still while Jean stood.

"No, I'm alright, Dr. Chandler," Jean said, looking up. Hope turned to watch the battle too. She stood watching Kurt teleport behind Rogue and wrap her in a bear-hug.

"You're coming with me, Rogue," He said, then they both vanished. Only Rogue appeared right back where she had started, and Kurt tumbled from the air, landing hard. Hope grabbed her bag and ran toward Kurt.

"I'm okay Doc!" Kurt yelled, already getting up from where he had landed. Hope skidded to a stop, quickly scanned the area for injured and when she found none went back to watching the fight. Hope wondered if she should join in, Rogue had never absorbed her powers, but by the looks of the fight, Rogue was throwing everything back. Rogue went flying sideways, Ororo had moved into the fight, and she was throwing howling winds at the girl.

"Rogue, I'm sorry," Ororo called, "But I can't let you hurt anymore people." Thunder rolled, clouds moved in and lightning launched from the overhead storm clouds at Rogue. Rogue looked towards the lightning, which abruptly changed direction and blasted Ororo. Hope watched as two more bolts struck Ororo full on, and then she started to fall.

"Jean!" Hope yelled, already running towards the falling Ororo. Ororo jerked in midair then slowly descended, right into Hope's arms. Hope laid Ororo down carefully, grabbing a stethoscope from her bag, and listening to Ororo's heart. When she didn't hear an irregular heartbeat, Hope ripped the stethoscope off and called to Hank.

"We need to move her!" She yelled as he rushed over, "Behind the cars, I don't know how long she'll be out." Keeping Ororo's head steady, Hope waited while Hank carefully lifted Ororo into his arm. She followed him behind the cars, then once Ororo was down, Hope darted back out and grabbed her bag. She darted back behind the cars, staying by Ororo.

"Everyone fall back!" Hope heard Logan yell, "I can take the beating better than you can."

"He's nuts," Hope muttered to the unconscious Ororo, carefully lifting her head to slide a bag of saline under as a makeshift pillow. "I'm going to stay by you, but I have to make sure Rogue doesn't get hurt," She told Ororo, shifting so she could see around the car they were behind. Logan had Rogue in his arms and they were falling. Hope winced when they landed, smashing the car underneath them. They went rolling off the side, Logan released Rogue once they hit the street and backed away. Rogue made four clones, all them were glaring hard at Logan.

"Rogue," Logan said gently, slowly backing away, "I know what it's like for nothin' to make sense in your head." Hope wondered what he could be talking about, but it didn't seem like the Rogues cared, "I've been there," Logan continued patiently, but the Rogues were done listening. One stepped forward, lifting Logan off the ground, before stepping back. The other three took over, blasting Logan with Scott's power. Logan went flying down the street, hitting the X-van, and landing on all fours. He didn't stay down long, he got up, and growled towards the Rogues. They rushed him again, one flipping a car before they surrounded him.

"Listen to me, kid. The others inside you, you're letting 'em push you around. The Rogue I know wouldn't take that off'a anybody," Logan said, just as gently as before, and this time it seemed to get through to Rogue. Her shoulders drop, she hung her head, and the clones rejoined with her, "That's right," Logan soothed, still floating in the air, "Stand up to 'em."

"Logan, there's too many of them," Rogue groaned, kneeling down. She started to moan, burying her head in her hands while Logan walked over to her. He crouched down next to her, gently stroking her hair, trying to comfort her.

Rogue started to shake her head, clutching at her temples, "No, no, no!" She screamed, then Charles came forward. Hope could see that Rogue and Charles were talking telepathically, and she watched carefully to see who would win.

"Rogue, come on, you can do this," Logan said when Rogue started to wail. She pressed her hands to the ground and started to shift rapidly through people. A boy Hope didn't recognize, Kurt, Pietro, Ororo, Scott, Blob, Mystique and Rogue's friend Risty. Then she was Kitty, Sabretooth, Lance, another boy Hope didn't recognize. Rogue became Magneto, Jean, Toad, Hank and Juggernaut before she returned to herself. Rogue seemed to sigh in heavy relief then collapsed into Logan. Hope grabbed her bag when Charles also cried out, and started towards the three.

"She's gonna be okay, right Charles?" Logan asked, Charles just blinked slowly, "Charles?"

"I...I don't know yet," Charles answer, and Logan looked towards Hope.

"Let me take a look at her," Hope said softly, kneeling down in front of Logan and placing a hand on his shoulder, "I'll take care of her." Logan shifted Rogue in his arms, giving Hope room to check the girl's pulse, heart and eyes.

"She's stable," Hope said, looking into Logan's eyes, "We need to get back to the Institute so I can monitor her vitals better."

"All right."

Hope walked into Charles's office almost two hours later, she dropped heavily into a chair and dropped her head back, "She's completely stable, but unconscious. I ran every test I could with the Institute's technology, every test I could think of and the only thing wrong with her is she's banged up a bit."

"No permanent damage?" Charles asked.

"Nothing that I can find," Hope sighed, then leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands, "She's going to be out for a very long time Charles, and when she wakes up there may be damage I missed or couldn't find." Hope covered her face with her hands, "I'm not sure Charles. About anything."

"You did your job, Dr. Chandler," Charles said, comfortingly, "Now, how's Ororo?"

"Awake, active and discharged," Hope sighed, at least that worry was gone, "She woke up shortly after I started on Rogue, I checked her over again, and sent her to bed."

"You should get some rest yourself, Dr. Chandler."

Hope shook her head, "No, not yet. I'm going to monitor Rogue for awhile." Hope looked through her fingers at Charles and smiled, "I pulled shifts like this at Charity all the time. Twenty-four hours on, twenty off, three days on, a day off. It was brutal, this is nothing." Hope sighed again and stood.

"Don't push yourself to far, Doctor," Charles warned as Hope walked out of the office.

"Of course Charles," Hope said as she walked out. She rolled her shoulders as she walked back to the Infirmary, she'd drink some coffee and maybe take a few minutes for a nap on one of the other beds. When she walked in she came face to back with Logan. He was standing by Rogue's bedside, looking down at her, silent.

"She's doing very well," Hope said quietly.

"How long will she be out?" He asked, not looking away from Rogue. Hope walked further into the room, heading for the small coffee maker in the corner of the room.

"I'm not sure," Hope poured a cup, then walked to the other side of the bed, holding it out to Logan, "It could be a day, could be a week." Logan took the cup, but didn't drink from it.

"Should have noticed something was wrong," Logan sighed, reaching out and running a hand over Rogue's head.

"Yes, we all should have noticed," Hope looked up at Logan, "But we didn't. We can't change the past, Logan. It could have been worse."

"She's just a kid."

"They all are, Logan," Hope turned around and got herself a cup of coffee, "Trust me Logan, when you miss a diagnoses, you can't let the guilt eat you up. You can only make up for missing it by treating it. Take a seat, if you want you can stay here. I'm not going anywhere for awhile." Hope slid one of the stools by the counter over to him, and sat down on the top of the counter. Logan sat down next to Rogue's bedside and picked up her hand, taking it in his. Hope sat there watching him with Rogue, listening to the steady beeping of the machines toting Rogue's heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure.

"I use to do this when I worked at Charity," Hope said after awhile, "I would finish a surgery, talk with the families then spend a few minutes over time watching the patients that worried me. I annoyed my boss because he had to keep paying me overtime."

"You don't have to stay, Doc."

"I know," Hope said, understanding that Logan wanted to be left alone, so she slid off the counter. "If there's a problem, you'll come get me." She ran her own hand over Logan's hair and kissed his cheek, "She'll be fine."

Hope sat in a corner of the Infirmary, going over paperwork while trying to be inconspicuous. She had tried to respect that Logan wanted to be alone with Rogue when Hope wasn't checking on her, but Hope needed to catch up on the work she was behind on. So she sat in a corner, trying to be small and silent.

"Dr. Chandler," Hope looked over her shoulder, Scott was standing in the doorway, "Can you spare a minute?"

"Yes, of course." Hope got up from her stool and quietly walked outside. She followed Scott to the room next to the Infirmary where there was a glass window that allowed people to look in. It was like a waiting room and an observation room in one. Hope smiled at Charles who was looking in at Logan and Rogue. Scott came to stand behind Charles, also looking in. Hope stayed off to the side, waiting.

"How long has he been in there?" Scott asked.

"He's never left her side," Charles answered before Hope could. So Hope kept quiet, waiting and watching.

"But she is recovering, right?" Scott looked towards her, and Hope nodded.

"Yes, slowly." Charles said, "However, having all of those personalities driven out has left her very fragile and the toughest challenge still awaits her, coming to terms with who Risty really was and who Mystique really is."

"Physically, she'll be a little weak for awhile," Hope elaborated, "She's going to have to take it easy on the training when she wakes up, at least for awhile."

"Are you sure, Dr. Chandler?" Charles asked, looking away from the window.

"Pretty sure, if she stays out any longer I'm going to recommend some very simple physical therapy when she does finally wake up. Just to get her back into shape." Hope watched Logan close his eyes and sigh, "Excuse me." Hope left, heading back to the Infirmary thinking Logan may be suffering from exhaustion, but she stopped outside the door, she just couldn't walk in.

"I won't lie to ya, kid," Logan said, looking down at Rogue. It was probably that look in his eyes that had Hope waiting outside the door, there was such pain in them. "Gettin' over this ain't gonna be easy. Somethin' about betrayal always sticks with ya, but trust me, you learn to deal with it." What happened to you, Hope wondered, sympathy and concern welling up in her for him. She was a doctor, she could feel the need to heal him deep in her, but she was only trained to heal the physical, not the emotional. Still, Hope thought, I want to heal him.

"You move on," Logan said, breaking into Hope's thoughts, "And you let your real friends be there for you." Logan suddenly looked surprised and Hope's eyes flew to the read outs of Rogue's vitals. There was nothing wrong with them, so she looked down at Rogue. Her eyes were open, she was looking up at Logan crying.

"Well, good morning sleepy head," Hope said brightly as she walked into the room. She smiled down at Rogue, but glanced at Logan out of the corner of her eye, "Feeling better?"

Author's Note: All right everyone, lets have one group awwww! I managed to work fluff in, doesn't it just make you happy? Of course I always try to find a way to work fluff in. I would say the next write in I'm going to do is for the X23 episode, but that's turning into a difficult story to write. Please read and review.


End file.
